This invention relates in general to boat trailers and, in particular, to an improved roller support assembly for use in conjunction with such boat transporting and storage vehicles.
More specifically, but without restriction to that particular use which is shown and described, this invention relates to a roller support assembly which improves the support of boats being transported or stored on a trailer. The roller support assembly herein disclosed not only maintains a boat on a loaded trailer with superior effectiveness, but further facilitates its loading and unloading.
Boat trailers have achieved increasing popularity in recent years due to the convenience and mobility they provide for transporting and storing boats of various designs on land with the capacity of being launched and loaded from the water as desired. To achieve such versatility, it is well recognized that a boat trailer must securely support the boat and that the boat supporting elements on the trailer conform to the boat hull contour so that pressures exerted thereby are distributed and localized stress, which could result in damage to the hull, are avoided. It is also highly desirable that the support elements couple satisfactory support of a loaded trailer with convenient loading and unloading characteristics.
In the prior art some boat trailers have employed self-adjusting all-roller techniques by which the rollers contacting the hull are so mounted to follow the changing contours of the hull of the boat when it is being launched or loaded to and from the water. One type of a boat trailer utilizing a self-adjusting all-roller construction to achieve overall improved operational characteristics is manufactured and sold under the trademark "EZ LOADER." Although such trailers sold under the trademark provide highly effective results in supporting a boat during transport or storage or while loading or unloading, it has been found that their self-adjusting roller assembly design can further be improved to increase the efficiency of support of the boat on the trailer.
The boat carrying capability of such self-adjusting, all-roller trailers can be optimized by moving the pivot support point of the roller assembly outward from the longitudinal centerline of the boat trailer at a vertical height well under the position of the rollers. Such lowering and outward positioning of the pivot point results in the boat being carried by the trailer with its center of gravity closer to the ground to increase the stability of the trailer while being transported on land. The need to vary the pivot point to achieve the lower positioning of the boat with respect to the ground has been necessitated by the proliferation of numerous hull designs for the various types of pleasure boats that a transporting vehicle must accommodate. The increased capability of handling such various designs and still maintaining the boat at the lowest feasible vertical position on a loaded trailer is therefore a desirable objective to improve existing roller assemblies employed in the prior art.
The previously known technique of support of a boat cannot optimumly achieve such lowered support while at the same time insuring the hull of the boat clears, during loading or unloading, one or more of the cross members which are positioned between the booms creating the bed of the trailer. Moreover, the retention of a boat at the lowest possible position on a trailer facilitates unloading of the boat into shallow water, when desired, as well as increasing the convenience by which the boat is reloaded onto the trailer. Thus, the prior art all-roller trailers are deficient in permitting a boat to be readily loaded or unloaded from a trailer and at the same time permitting the boat to assume, during cradling on a trailer, an optimum lowermost position relative to the ground.